Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Sleazebags

1. Maxime Bernier, cabinet minister - told his girlfriend to wear a low-cut dress to his cabinet swearing-in and when she was ridiculed for inappropriate attire, let her know he was delighted. When she was caught in a media scandal for, among other things, classified documents he left at her house, he didn't return her calls.

2. Peter Mackay, cabinet minister - broke up with girlfriend and fellow MP Belinda Stronach, pretended she dumped him and posed tearfully in Wellies with a loyal-looking dog. (It was later alleged the dog was borrowed for the photo op.) Called Stronach a dog in parliament. (Also in parliament, told former leader of NDP to "go back to your knitting".)

3. James Moore, junior minister - displayed photos of his girlfriend's butt in parliament (in view of the public gallery) and pilloried a female MP who complained about it. Rumored to be about to be promoted due to resignation-scandal of Sleazebag #1.

To be fair, I have never detected a hint of sleazebagginess in Stephen Harper. But his senior caucus, good god: how do the Reform/Alliance/Tories attract self-centered playboys in such numbers? Federal political coverage has become an X-rated soap opera.

And how can the Conservatives continue, with a straight face, to pretend to be the party of family values? It's more like The Party of Men Who Date Beautiful Women and Treat Them Like Crap.

4 comments:

Belinda Stronach slept with a married man (Tie Domi) and walked around Calgary hand in hand with him. Let's have a little parity here!

"And how can the Conservatives continue, with a straight face, to pretend to be the party of family values?"

Because the policies are family-friendly. Raising the age of consent to 16-- very family friendly. A child care benefit-- very family friendly. Defending traditional family values-- very family friendly.

If Maxime Bernier's worst sin is telling his girlfriend to show some little cleavage, and James Moore's worst sin is looking at his gf's butt (in a bikini!), and Peter MacKay's worst sin was to be dumped by Belinda (and yes, I do think by switching parties she effectively dumped him), I think the CPC is not doing too shabby.

I don't think these behaviours make them "playboys". Sheesh, not even true so-cons would qualify them as such. You're being more prudish than liberals say we are!

Vic Toews, I give you that-- it was a bona fide scandal. He should be put on ice.

If those are the worst sex scandals you can dig up to say that the Conservatives are not the party of "family values", that's pathetic. Except for Vic Toews, those are all pretty venial sins.

You misunderstand my post. I am not someone who is outraged at sex scandals. I thought the Monica Lewinsky affair was a private matter between a husband and wife and it was outrageous that it resulted in impeachment. Marriages have rocky periods and people sometimes cheat on their spouses - it should not result in political scandal, in my opinion.

What gets me about these guys is the soap opera of tawdry incidents in which a Tory cabinet minister has a beautiful young girlfriend he humiliates in public. I don't think any "sin" has been committed or that any of these cabinet ministers should lose their jobs for their churlish behavior. I just think the sheer numbers of such incidents is making a laughingstock of the Harper government. The fact that Stronach snuck around with a married hockey star or that Bernier's girlfriend was marrried to a Hell's Angel just adds to the tawdriness.

I stand by my assessment: The Party of Men Who Date Beautiful Women and Treat Them Like Crap.

Stronach joined the Conservatives before the take-over of the party by Harper's Reform Alliance party. Harper took the party much further to the right and didn't brook any independence in his caucus. Stronach couldn't take it and defected to the Liberals. She tried to maintain her relationship with Peter Mackay but he couldn't handle her defection so they split up. So far, so good. It's none of our business but if we have to pass judgment, I'd say that up to this point they both behaved well.

Then Mackay decided to try to turn public opinion against Stronach by staging that damn photo op with the dog. That's where things gets sleazy. Pretending to be jilted, looking so forlorn and hard doneby, _borrowing a dog_... it demonstrates something really nasty and manipulative about his character. It also indicates a lack of decency. And it's so high school. You'd think that Peter Mackay couldn't fall any lower than selling out one of Canada's founding parties to a right-wing regional political group, but IMHO he did fall lower with his infamous weepy dog-and-wellies pose.